ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



375 



De. GEO. VASEY, Editor, Normal, Ills. 



OUR NATIVE OAKS— No. 5. 



We propose in this number to give a short 

 account of the Red, Spanish, and Pin Oaks, and 

 then a synoptical table of all the Oaks east of 

 the Rocky Mountains. 



[Fig. 225] 



The Red Oak (^Quercus rubra, L.) is 

 quite as commonly called Black Oak, which 

 shows the importance of designating such species 

 by their proper botanical names. It is a larger 

 tree than any of the others usually called Red 

 or Black Oak, and is in its habitat rather more 

 attached to the vicinity of streams. Very large 

 trees of this kind may often be found in bottom 

 lands, having a trunk three feet or more in di- 



ameter, and without branches to the height of 

 twenty or thirty feet. The bark on the large 

 trees is thicker and more deeply checked than 

 on most of the other species. It is sometimes 

 difficult to distinguish this ft-om the variety 

 tinctoria of Quercus coccinea, unless the eye 

 has been trained to close observation of their 

 characteristics. The leaves of Quercus rubra 

 are usually larger, with about four lobes on each 

 side ; the lobes are also more uniform, and point 

 forward more strongly toward the apex of the 

 leaf. The acorns are much larger than in any 

 of the varieties of Quercus coccinea (seldom less 

 than one inch long), and are quite constant in 

 size and shape. The cup is always shallow, and 

 about as wide as the acorn is long. A variety, 

 runcinata, found near St. Louis, has a narrower 

 leaf, with more numerous and shorter lobes. 



Spanish Oak Hiueitus falcata, Midix.) 



This is a tree of large size, confined in its range 

 mostly to the Southern States, occurring, how- 

 ever, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, 

 Southern Illinois, Missouri, and probably in all 

 the States South. The leaves are usually long- 

 stalked, large, and of peculiar shape, being 



